It has been 30 years since federal Judge W. Arthur Garrity, Jr. ruled that Boston's School Committee "knowingly carried out a systematic program of segregation," and ordered busing to integrate the city's public schools. The racially charged protests and hostilities that followed dominated national headlines in the 1970s and remains one of the darkest chapters in Boston's history. On the Bus captures the violence, terror and anger of the period, and brings to life the people who lived through it.

In researching this story, I tracked down and interviewed people who lived in Boston during this difficult time. I talked with people of both races, people who had been students riding the buses or parents fearful about their children getting through each day safely. The fictional characters in On the Bus are based on the stories these people generously shared with me.